The girl was a bit stunned by his startled reaction, but still started to introduce the fridge beside them to Broly: "The fridge makes things cold. It can keep food frozen for a while."
But she clearly could not explain much more than that, so she quickly took a cake out of the fridge and handed it to him. "This is cake. It has cream on top, it's chocolate flavored. You can try it."
Broly leaned his head over, sniffing left and right at what the girl held in her hands. Perhaps because he caught a special kind of sweet smell, his eyes lit up and he grabbed the cake, which was still wrapped in plastic wrap, and shoved it into his mouth.
"This part you can't eat."
Young Sakura was startled. She hurriedly set the plate down, grabbed the plastic wrap at the corner of Broly's mouth, and tried to pull it out.
She succeeded, but also failed: the plastic wrap snapped. She lost her balance and fell backward, but Broly grabbed her hand first and pulled her upright.
"Careful."
Broly awkwardly offered the warning.
"Plastic wrap…"
Young Sakura pointed at what was still in his mouth to remind him.
Broly pulled the plastic wrap out of his mouth. The sweet aroma of the cake left him reluctant to let it go.
"Is there more?"
He licked the cream on the plastic wrap as he asked.
"There's no more, only pudding left. It's strawberry flavored."
Young Sakura shook her head and took the strawberry pudding out of the fridge.
This time she explained in advance that the outer container could not be eaten, so Broly did not swallow the packaging along with the food.
"This is good too. Is there more?"
The two strawberry puddings were gone in no time, but Broly was still unsatisfied. His eyes practically shone as he stared at the fridge.
From this strange box, his "wife" beside him had already taken out two kinds of delicious things he had never eaten before.
"There's no more."
"Then what's that?"
"That's meat. Ah, that's still raw."
Broly did not care whether food was raw or not. He picked it up and started biting into it.
Raw meat did not have the sweetness of cake or the bouncy, jiggly texture of pudding, but it did have the taste of real flesh and blood.
Although it was not anything particularly tasty, compared to Vampa spiders, this was gourmet cuisine.
"What about this?"
"That's an egg—wait, you're supposed to crack the shell."
Young Sakura tried to stop him, but Broly had already put an egg into his mouth. As he tried to swallow it, it got stuck in his throat, only for him to punch himself in the neck. The egg lodged there shattered inside.
He smacked his lips twice. The fluid texture, somewhat similar to spider eggs, did not appeal to him much. His eyes shifted to some other colorful fruits.
While asking the girl "What's this?" he quickly stuffed everything that smelled even halfway decent into his mouth.
That included a box of lemon-scented deodorizer. Half of Broly's small body was draped over the fridge door as he rummaged madly through everything inside, edible or not. His tail wagged from side to side behind his butt, betraying his excitement.
Only now did young Sakura notice how different this boy was. Watching the long tail swaying back and forth right in front of her, curiosity made her reach out and grab it.
The moment his tail was grabbed, Broly's body flinched. He hurriedly turned around and yanked his tail back before asking the girl, "What are you doing?"
"Is that a real tail?"
"What else would it be, a fake?"
A tail was a sensitive spot for Saiyans. Without desensitization training, having their tail grabbed would cause a Saiyan to lose their combat ability.
Although Broly had more or less overcome completely losing his fighting capability when his tail was grabbed, what was sensitive still felt sensitive.
On Planet Vampa, aside from his father, no one had helped him with tail-desensitization training. And he had long gotten used to the way his father, Paragus, grabbed his tail.
Now, being suddenly grabbed by someone else, even though the girl had not used much strength, the different way she held it still made him react.
"Hey, how come you don't have a tail?"
As he spoke, Broly also glanced under the girl's body. Sensing his gaze, young Sakura instinctively turned sideways, lifted a leg, and reached down to cover the important areas.
Which exposed her butt from the side. Seeing that the girl had no tail, Broly asked in surprise.
"How could people possibly have a tail?"
"How could people possibly not have a tail?"
"Ordinary humans don't have tails. Only Saiyans have tails."
Very quickly, new information surfaced in his mind, and Broly's hand, which had been about to pull at the girl's butt to look for a tail that was not there, froze in place.
"So you really don't have a tail."
Broly looked at the girl with a bit of pity.
"What's with that look?"
Young Sakura felt very uncomfortable under his gaze.
"You're jealous I have a tail, right? Since you've given me so many tasty things to eat, I'll let you touch my tail."
As he spoke, Broly offered his tail to the girl. Young Sakura stared at the fluffy tail, still lightly swaying, and was indeed tempted. She reached out her hand, about to take the tail from Broly.
"What are you two doing?"
But the moment was interrupted by a voice. Shinji, in pajamas, stood in the kitchen doorway, unable to make sense of the scene before him.
His foster sister and a strange little boy, both standing naked in front of the open fridge, seemed to be exchanging something.
"I'm letting her touch my tail."
Broly answered very seriously, describing exactly what he was doing.
"He was hungry, so I brought him here to eat."
Young Sakura explained in a flustered way.
Touching tails? Eating? What kind of nonsense was this?
At this age, Shinji was still quite innocent. He had no idea what his foster sister and this strange boy were actually doing, but he did understand one thing.
"Sakura, he's your friend, right? But even if he's hungry and wants to eat, you really shouldn't bring him to the kitchen looking like that.
And you, my sister's friend—do you usually go to other people's homes as a guest without wearing any clothes?"
Young Second Master really did look the part of an older brother as he questioned them.
"My clothes got ruined."
Broly immediately answered the question about his clothing.
"What about you, Sakura?"
Shinji Matou turned his gaze to young Sakura.
"I didn't have time to put mine on."
Her clothes were still down in the worm pit, but wanting to escape that nightmare place as quickly as possible, she had not bothered with them.
Now, facing her foster brother's gaze—the only other person in the Matou family besides Kariya who treated her somewhat well—the girl shrank her neck.
"I'll go back to my room and get dressed."
She ran off, leaving Broly alone in the kitchen.
After Sakura left, Young Second Master's gaze turned to Broly.
More precisely, to Broly's tail, swaying in his hand.
"Is that tail of yours real?"
He walked behind Broly and, seeing the tail disappear into his tailbone, asked in surprise.
"You want to touch it too?"
Seeing this person's curiosity, Broly generously asked.
"I'm not touching something that weird!"
Young Second Master tilted his chin up and replied with a tsundere air.
Though, that fluffy tail did tempt him a bit.
"Are you an old friend of my sister's?"
He asked.
"Friend? No. She's my wife."
Broly answered while gnawing on an apple.
"What, Sakura's already married at her age?"
Young Second Master was dumbfounded.
"Married? What's that?"
Broly countered. No information about marriage surfaced in his mind.
"You don't even know what marriage is?"
"Why should I know?"
"Then how did you make my sister your wife?"
"My mind had a message that told me so."
Broly answered honestly.
Young Shinji could not make sense of it, but was deeply shaken.
"Is there more to eat here?"
Broly, who did not understand politeness, asked. The stuff in the fridge was already gone.
Young Second Master: "…"
Only now did he notice the mess inside the fridge.
"Who are you really? How did you break into my house and trick my sister?"
By the time young Sakura came back, what she saw was her foster brother interrogating Broly.
"My name is Broly."
Broly introduced himself again.
"The Crystal Palace appeared, and there were lots of line-shaped things around me. Then, whoosh, I just ended up here."
With his limited vocabulary, Broly could only give this utterly baffling answer.
"I didn't trick anyone. Those bugs were delicious. Of course, the things in this box you call a fridge taste even better."
Broly licked his lips. He still was not full—low-energy food always required a lot more intake.
"I get it. You must be a thief. You tricked my sister into opening the door and letting you in, then tricked her into taking you into my home so you could steal food."
Young Second Master filled in the blanks with what he thought was reasonable logic. He felt he had already uncovered the truth.
"A thief?"
Broly frowned as the term triggered a reaction in his mind.
The information that surfaced told him this was a bad, slanderous label.
"You won't give me any food and you're slandering me on top of that. Do you really want me to get rid of you that badly?"
Young Broly developed killing intent toward Young Second Master.
This killing intent was extremely pure—a desire to destroy anything that was harmful to himself.
It was a feral instinct he had developed on Planet Vampa.
No malice, just a simple urge to erase things—or lives—that were not beneficial to him.
The moment that pure killing intent flared, Young Second Master was frightened. He fell on his butt.
Meeting that indifferent gaze, his heart flooded with fear and dread.
It was just like a weak creature being fixed upon by a powerful predator, triggering all kinds of nervous and fearful reactions.
It was life's instinct warning him of the danger in front of him.
"My brother didn't mean it like that."
Perhaps because Young Second Master was one of only two people in the Matou family who treated her well, young Sakura spoke up for Shinji at that moment.
Seeing it was the girl who had given him good food, Broly's hostility quickly faded, and he turned to ask her for food again.
Young Sakura was in a bind. Even counting herself, the Matou family only had five members. The food in the fridge was all they had; there was nothing else.
"But I can take you out to eat."
Seeing Broly's disappointment, Sakura thought of something and spoke.
"Then what are we waiting for?"
As long as there was food, Broly had no objections. He urged her on.
"But you have to put on clothes first."
Young Sakura added.
"But I don't have any clothes. What do I do?"
Broly began to fret.
"It's okay. You don't have clothes, but my brother does."
Young Sakura looked down at Young Second Master on the floor.
"Eh?"
Young Second Master let out a small sound of surprise. He had wanted to refuse.
But when he saw Broly's gaze turn toward him, he did not have the courage to say no.
"You're a good person too!"
Having gotten clothes that would let him go out and eat, Broly was overjoyed, forgetting the unpleasantness Young Second Master had just caused him.
"Shinji, I won't be coming back. Please tell Uncle Kariya for me."
With the terrifying grandfather dead, there was no reason for her to stay in the Matou family. Young Sakura only wanted to leave this bug-filled house that had left her with such psychological scars. But before leaving, she had not forgotten to tell the people who had treated her well, through Shinji.
"Sakura, come here for a second. I have something to ask you."
Young Second Master did not dare speak in front of Broly. After calling his foster sister aside, he lowered his voice and questioned her.
"Are you being threatened by that guy with the tail? If you are, then… you should just go along with him for now, keep him calm. I'll tell Dad and Uncle later so they can come rescue you."
Second Master was still Second Master. Even as a child, he did not dare to step forward himself.
"I don't even know where Grandpa went. If he were here, things would be fine."
Young Sakura: "…"
"I'm not being threatened. On the contrary, Broly is a good person. He saved me. I'm free now. I'm never coming back. And Grandpa… don't mention him to me. He was a bad person."
"How could Grandpa be a bad person?"
Shinji wanted to argue with his foster sister, but then Broly's impatient urging came from the other side.
"I've finished putting the clothes on. When can we go out to eat?"
"I'm not talking to you anymore. I have to go."
"Wait."
"What is it, Brother?"
"Do you have any money? Going out to eat costs money, you know."
Young Sakura: "…"
She was only five. How would she have money?
"Here. This is the allowance Dad gave me. You take it."
Young Second Master opened his piggy bank, took out all the coins inside, and put them in his foster sister's hand.
"But that's your allowance…"
"I'm your brother, even if only in name. Isn't it normal for a brother to protect his sister? I may not be able to protect you right now, but giving you money is the only thing I can do. You must keep that dangerous guy calm. I'll definitely tell Uncle and Grandpa that you were taken away so they can come save you."
Young Sakura started to speak, stopped, then started again. In the end, she said nothing, taking her foster brother's allowance.
"I really am not being threatened. You really don't have to get anyone to save me."
It was only when she was leaving the Matou household that she reaffirmed her situation once more.
"I know, Sakura. You must stay alive, okay!"
Young Second Master, convinced he had figured everything out, gave his foster sister a solemn response, leaving the girl at a loss for words.
"Did something dangerous happen to you?"
After they had walked some distance, Broly finally asked the girl beside him in curiosity.
"No. It's just that my brother stubbornly thinks you've taken me hostage."
Young Sakura answered.
"Hostage? What's that?"
Broly was baffled. The shut-in memories from his previous life were all fragmented, only popping out bits of information from time to time.
If he could not understand the information, it would quickly fade, so most of the time he behaved like an ignorant child.